Friday, March 30, 2007

Double your pleasure. Double your fun.

'Xerox your paycheck.', went an old joke. So, are these guys having fun yet?

The money spread across the table at Bellevue City Hall on Thursday looked like $50 bills, with a picture of President Grant on the front.

But they really were $5 bills and were supposed to display an image of President Lincoln.

They were counterfeits, picked up by the Bellevue Police Department at Bellevue Square, where three people were arrested on suspicion of trying to pass bad bills totaling more than $3,000. ....[Police] said the counterfeiters bleached $5 bills and used a computer to print scanned images of $50 bills over them....On one of the bills, the faint image of the original $5 marking still was visible.

By printing over the smaller-denomination bill, the counterfeiters were able to use the material of real money and leave the watermark and other security features intact....